John Doran’s Top Ten Noise Rock Bands – Part Two

The Quietus‘ John Doran returns with two more noise rock bands. You can read part one here. Stay tuned for parts three, four and five.

3. Comanechi
Comanechi are Akiko (The Big Pink, Sperm Javelin, Pre) on drums and vocals and Simon on guitars. They are Godzilla and you are Tokyo.

Please explain what kind of music you play and what your live shows are like?
Akiko: “Punk, rock, doom, metal, soul, blues and much, much more. Our live shows include “Parental advisory mature content” and blue language.”

How much are Electric Wizard a guiding light to Comanechi? [They have insisted on recording in the same studios as the English doom titans in the past.]
Simon: “We mindlessly worship the cult of the riff. My epiphany came when you interviewed them and Jus Oborne said: ‘Make us look like fucking cunts yeah? I want people to hate us. I want people to fear us. I want the common man to spit at us in the street.’ This spoke to me.”

What’s wrong with just playing nice?
Akiko and Simon: “Are we misunderstanding what you are saying that we don’t play nicely at shows? There’s nothing wrong with playing nice but it can get boring. It doesn’t get you anywhere.”

4. Dethscalator
Dethscalator are loud. Some would say that they play at such intense volumes it makes it impossible to tell whether they are any good or not. Luckily, my hearing is so profoundly damaged that I can tell – just about – that they are pretty smoking live. Their shows have been described as like “watching a bunch of idiots making too much noise to notice that there is an angry wounded grizzly stuck in a bear trap only a few feet away from them”. They can often be found in my local Wetherspoons. On LSD. Staring at the fruit machines.

What are the common bonds between Megadeth, Lawnmower Deth and Dethscalator, apart from lack of rigorous spelling?
Stuart (drums): “I see. Yeah I suppose we are like the perfect animal really, the metal genius of Lawnmower Deth combined with the jokey, un-seriousness of Megadeth.”

What are you doing in 2011?
“We have an album – ‘Racial Golf Course No Bitches’ – coming out in February, a split 7 inch with Bad Guys before that, and we’re playing some festivals. We’ll probably buy a new van too.”

Dethscalator singer Dan once told me that he was a sensualist while trying to score some ketamine from a stranger at 7am, while wearing a blue slanket – is this aspirational or regrettable behaviour in your eyes?
“Well in my eyes it’s highly regrettable, he’s not exactly street-wise either, but I think everyone else should aspire to it. The easiest and most popular Dan comparison is always Oliver Reed. Would you have discouraged Oli Reed’s behaviour?”

Why is Predator 2 such a good film?
“I watched this recently with my film-studies-graduate flatmate John and we debated that very question. After six whisky macs though we just sank into a belligerent battle of movie trivia and agreed on nothing, except that we’d both still do Maria Conchita Alonso. There are some tit shots, some hanging skinned bodies, Gary Busey and an alien… What’s not to like about Predator 2?”